Decisive Hand Arc
by The Harvester of Sorrow
Summary: Where the Yamainu's skills are a little more well-rounded. The 48-hour plan doesn't quite go as it is expected to.


Decisive Hand Arc—Chapter One: Masters of War

"Yes, 'n how many times must a man look up  
Before he can see the sky?  
Yes, 'n how many ears must one man have  
Before he can hear people cry?  
Yes, 'n how many deaths will it take till he knows  
That too many people have died?  
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,  
The answer is blowin' in the wind."

Blowin' in the Wind—Bob Dylan

15 June, 1983 (Hinamizawa, Japan)

Skylark 01 had never considered himself a 'moral' man, exactly. He was a counter-intelligence agent for "Tokyo", after all. It really came with the trade. Killing had bothered him when he first entered this profession, but many years of doing just that, in a creative variety of ways, had broken him of any squeamishness about it. He had killed men, some with weapons in their hands as they threatened, and others with their wives in their arms as they slumbered. He had killed women, some who threatened his mission, and others who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.  
01 had not, however, killed children before. He tightened his grip on the S&W Model 39 in his hands as he screwed on the foreign sound suppressor. It felt wrong to him somehow; a feeling that concerned him greatly. Feelings could not be allowed to get in the way of the objective. There was too much on the line here. A lot of money had been promised in payment.

He grinned, forcing his thoughts onto images of yen. Stacks upon stacks of bills passed through his head. Well, uneasy feelings could easily be solved with a nice bottle of expensive sake. There really wasn't much use in lingering on the thought.

Chuckling quietly, 01 looked up to see 05 and 06 attaching the breaching charges. It was almost time. In just a few minutes, the subject would be in their possession. From that point, it wouldn't be much longer until he saw the cash.

A tap on his shoulder prompted him to rotate his head to the left. 03 stood to his left, wire cutters in hand, and a smirk on his face.

"Phone lines and electricity are down." 03 informed him.

"Good." 01 glanced past 03 to the house at the other end of the courtyard. "Have 04 and 07 cleared the estate yet?"

The other man nodded. "There was a guard inside. They're hiding the body as we speak."

"Tell them to hurry up. We've only a few minutes until the fireworks are set off."

"Roger." 03 saluted him, and then hurried back to the house opposite them.

01 watched his subordinate go back to the house, then looked at his weapon. So these suppressors did do the trick; he hadn't even heard the shot.

With a weight of 0.780 kilograms, a barrel length of 102 millimeters, and an overall length of 192 millimeters, it was certainly more compact than his old Tokarev TT-33. When the Major had given them these new American-made Smith & Wesson Model 39s, he hadn't really been sold on their effectiveness. That opinion was rapidly changing, though. The Model 39 was proving to be a very useful weapon, from increased concealability due to the reduced size, to the near whisper of a gunshot due to the suppressor.

The sound of approaching footsteps broke 01 out of his thoughts. He looked up to see 03, 04, and 07 running across the courtyard.

When they drew near, 07 gave a slight bow of his head. "Sorry," he said. "We didn't expect to have to dispose of a corpse."

01 waved the apology off. "Shit happens. Just get into position."

The three threw him quick salutes as they trotted past.

He watched the three approach the door, then turned to look at 02, who stood across from him, scanning the courtyard.

"You should get into place as well."

02 nodded, never taking his eyes away from the entrance. After a moment more, he pivoted to face the entrance, and jogged off to his spot.

01 glanced at the watch on the underside of his wrist. Thirty seconds until the fireworks.

Feeling the weight of the firearm in his hand, he turned and knocked three times on the van behind him.

"All units prepare for entry." The Captain leaned his head out of the van's window. "Furude Rika is to be taken alive at all costs, and I would prefer that we take our 'friend' Dr. Irie alive as well. All others are to be considered expendable."

"Roger," 01 answered as he walked past.

The Captain patted him on the shoulder. "Good luck, guys."

01 held up his right hand, giving his superior a 'thumbs up'. Then he proceeded to approach the door, and leaned against the wall in front of 02. Looking back, he saw 02, 03, and 04 behind him. Which meant that 05, 06, 07, and 08 were on the other side. It was funny how these things worked out sometimes.

Turning his attention back to the door, he exhaled slowly. They were in the calm before the storm now. He looked across the doorway at 05, who nodded. One party was prepared. A moment later he felt a hand on his shoulder.

All parties prepared.

He held up his left hand, putting three fingers in the air. Six seconds until the fireworks.

05 nodded and held up the clacker. Five seconds.

He placed his handgun in a drop-leg holster. Four seconds.

Plugged his ears. Three seconds.

Took a calming breath. Two seconds.

Loosened his jaw. One second.

_**BAM**_

Without missing a beat, he drew his weapon. While his hands were moving down to retrieve his firearm, 05 stepped back to kick the door. By the time he had brought the gun back up, the door had been kicked in. He stepped in after 05 and scanned the room. Milliseconds later, the other five had rushed in.

For a tense moment, they were all pointing their guns around an empty room.

"Clear."

He relaxed.

"C'mon, let's—" 04 stepped forward.

01 put his arm out, blocking 04's path.

"Hold up. Everyone, NVGs on."

He holstered his gun again, and pulled off his cap with his right hand. With his left, he pulled the night-vision goggles out of a pouch attached to his leg, and slid them over the top of his head. Putting the cap back on, he flicked the switch. The NVGs hummed to life, illuminating the dark room in a green hue.

Just as he'd thought. Tripwires.

"They've booby-trapped the place." He informed his colleagues. "Probably non-lethal, but not definitely. Proceed with extreme caution."

Without waiting for an answer, he drew his weapon and began stepping over the wires. When he reached the door on the far end of the room, he looked back to see 06 standing beside him, and the rest stepping over the last of the wires.

01 pointed a finger at 06, and then indicated the door handle. 06 nodded and grasped it.

A second later, 06 twisted the knob, and barged into the room. 01 followed behind him, handgun raised. Both scanned the room, checking for hostiles. Finding none, they relaxed.

They appeared to have entered some sort of torture chamber.

"Watch the far door." He commanded 06, who nodded and moved to cover it. Turning around, he saw the last of the squad filing into room.

"Move faster," he hissed at them, then trotted after 06.

When the entire squad had assembled at the door, he looked at 02 and 03.

"You two, stack up and breach. 04 and I will be right behind you. We'll be the attack team." Turning his gaze the rest of the squad, he waved his left hand over his head. "The rest of you will the support team. Count to ten, then follow us in. 06, you have your two way radio?"

The soldier in question nodded, and pulled it out of his leg pouch.

"Good. If we need to pull off any complex maneuvers, I'll contact you. Otherwise, just keep us covered. You all got it?"

A whispered chorus of affirmatives reached his ears.

"Do it."

02 stepped back, and kicked in the door. As soon as it was down, he raced inside, with 03 and 04 hot on his heels.

01 followed right behind them, scanning their new surroundings. The large chamber seemed to be an old prison. Around the circular room were several holes dug in the wall, with some kind of metal gate—iron or steel probably—cutting off access. They were walking around a walkway that circled the edge of the room. Barely three feet in led to a drop off, a giant hole that took up most of the floor space. Down there lay another room with the same circular pattern. He glanced ahead to see 02 approaching a dirt staircase that led down to the floor below. Right as he was about to caution the man, the gunfire started. 02 cried out, and collapsed backward.

"Shooter!" 03 called as he dropped to the ground, and fired a few shots over the edge of the walkway.

01 followed 03's example, and crawled up the ledge as well. Glancing off to his left, he saw 04 pulling 02 back.

"Condition?" he called out to 04, and blindly shot his pistol at the source of the incoming gunfire.

"He took one in the abdomen, and one in the chest." 01 glanced back to see 04's blood-stained hands peeling 02's jacket off. "I think he's lung shot."

02 began coughing violently, a spray of crimson erupting from his throat with each hack. "It's definitely in my goddamn lung! Jesus-fuck!"

04 put his hands under 02's back. "Both rounds went straight through. I gotta get him outta here, sir."

01 nodded. "Do it carefully. If you catch another round, we're gonna hit a whole mess 'a problems."

"Yessir." 04 pulled a weakly protesting 02 onto his shoulders, and began a slow crouch-walk toward the exit.

Out of the corner of 01's eye, he saw the support team moving along the side, carefully firing over the edge.

He pulled out his radio and depressed the talk button. "Support, remain where you are. We'll lay fire into them from two directions. Over."

A moment later, his radio buzzed with the voice of 06. "Roger that, 01. Holding position. Over."

He replaced the radio in its pouch, and crawled up to 03, who was inserting a fresh magazine into his Model 39. "Did you get a glimpse of them?"

"Yeah. They're in the cage directly opposite and below us." He released the slide-lock on his weapon, chambering a round. "There are two of them. A girl with a Kalashnikov, indeterminate model, and a man with an indeterminate weapon, possibly a shotgun of some sort."

03 finished his sentence by pointing his gun over the side, and fired two quiet rounds, each jerking the gun back ever so slightly.

01 pulled himself forward to look, then quickly retreated as a round impacted the ledge below his face, kicking dirt up into his vision.

He considered the situation for a moment, the pulled out his radio again. "Support, do you have eyes on the shooters? Over."

"We do. Over."

"Good. Shoot in a rotation, one at a time. Keep at least one person shooting at them at all times. Over."

"Roger that. Over."

Putting the radio away, he turned to 03. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Support is going to keep a stream of fire on their position, and you're going to keep the noise coming from this position. I'm going to go somewhere over there"—he indicated a place on the walkway about twenty metres forward—"And pick them off."

"Understood," 03 fired again. "Try not to get shot."

01 crawled past 03, keeping his chest pressed onto the dirt floor. He made his way to the position, then slowly looked over the ledge.

Finally getting a clear picture, he saw a girl—late-teens, white sweater, wolf-whistle worthy bust-size—firing an AK in three-round bursts up at the support team, while a man—mid-to-late thirties, business suit—with a shotgun traded shots with 03.

He took a deep breath, and took aim at the man with the shotgun. After lining up the sights with the man's midsection, he slowly curled his finger around the trigger.

The gun exploded in silence, the muffled report and sound of the slide both covered by the AK's loud _Rat-a-tat-tat_.

As the man keeled over, 01 fired again. This time, the bullet went higher, and the top of the man's head exploded. The girl paused, and gaped at her friend's body as it crumpled, and at the blood and grey matter that covered her.

Wasting no time, he adjusted his aim, and shot again. He had intended to hit the girl in the chest, but at the same moment he had pulled the trigger, the girl had twisted. Instead of popping an important organ, the nine-millimeter bullet entered her right shoulder, causing her to let go of the AK. She dropped to her knees, gripping her shoulder, and whimpering in agony.

He started to draw a bead on her, when a thought popped into his head. He leapt up, keeping his gun trained on the girl.

"Cease firing! Cease firing!" He called, and carefully climbed down the ledge. As soon as he hit the bottom, he broke into a near sprint at the girl.

When she saw him approaching, she growled, then tried to grab her rifle with her left hand. "You bastar—"

The moment that her hand had wrapped around the grip, he arrived, and brought the butt of his pistol across her face. 01 grinned as he registered the sound of cartilage breaking under the impact of the strike. The girl cried out, and grabbed her nose. "You bastard! You goddamn bastard! I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!" Her tears mingled with the blood pouring from her nose.

01 holstered his gun, and retrieved a knife.

"Just like I capped your friend?" he queried, then grabbed her head and forced her to look at the man's corpse. "Just like that, hm?"

"Kasai…" her tone had less force to it now. Attempting to pull out of his grip, she reached for the body. "Oh God, Kasai…"

01 placed the knife to her forehead, pushing it in until he drew blood. "Now, you're going to come with us, or I'm going to scalp your pretty little head…Sonozaki? Are you a Sonozaki? Well, whatever."

"You pig-fucker," her voice was barely more than a murmur now, as she weakly tried to bat the knife away.

"Sir?" 03 said, coming to a halt to 01's left.

01 looked up at 03, and saw the Support team a few paces behind him. Motioning for them all over, he moved the knife down to her throat.

"This is how we're going to get the target. She's gonna make them come back to us. Ain't that right, sweetie?"

The Sonozaki girl spat at him. "Go to hell, you son of a bitch."

He smiled at her, and wiped the saliva off of his arm. Then, in one quick motion, he cut her right ear off.

She screamed. Loudly. 01's smile turned into a sadistic grin. Sonozaki was going learn to cooperate real quickly. He'd practiced this art for years.

Prying away the hands that cupped the side of her head, he spat into the wound. "Can you hear me clearly now? 'Cause you still got another one I could cut if it's still muffling your hearing."

"I hear you…I hear you." Sonozaki whimpered. "Please—"

"Don't do that again?" 01 finished. "If you help us, I won't. In fact, I even have some stuff that'll make you feel better. You don't even have to do anything. Just be a good little girl and stay quiet, alright?"

Sonozaki nodded, tears streaming silently out of her eyes.

"Good. Oh, but just to let you know. If you make too much noise, try to run, or do anything I don't like, I swear to God, you'll be begging for death. You think you can hold out? Try repeating that mantra after I've gutted you and started pouring battery acid into your exposed abdominal organs. Or maybe I'll open up that hole"—he rubbed a finger in the blood oozing out of the spot that had held her ear barely a minute ago, making her cry out—"in the side of your head a little more and give some degenerates a chance to literally skull-fuck your brains into mincemeat. Are you really sure you hear me?" His tone went lower and lower, until it was but an angry hiss in her ear.

The girl nodded violently, keeping her eyes down.

"I'm glad we understand each other. Let's go." He sheathed the knife, and grabbed her under the arms. Glancing back at his men, he nodded at the girl. "Her friends must have gone somewhere. Look for a doorway of some sort."

"Sir?" 03 pointed to the cell behind him.

01 raised an eyebrow and followed 03's finger until he saw the passage entrance at the back of the cell he was standing in. "Oh."

Pulling Sonozaki to her feet, he nodded down the passage. "Well, let's go. 05, 06, you're on point."

The pair nodded and began down the passageway. The group had only walked for maybe thirty feet when they came to an opening.

"What is it?" he heard 03 call from behind him.

"Looks like we found a bottomless pit or something. They must'a duped us." 05 turned back.

"Wait," 01 commanded. "Shine your light over the edge."

05 did as commanded, then looked back. "There's a ladder, and I think I saw an opening a little ways down."

"Shit, I guess they escaped down—" 01 was cut off by a new, decidedly female voice.

"You murderers! How dare you kill Shion!"

"No, Mion, don't…" The Sonozaki girl—Shion?—whispered.

Pausing to confirm the words he'd heard from both girls, 01 dragged Shion up the edge with him. "She's not dead. Yet. If you want her to stay that way, you'd better send up Furude Rika and the doc."

No answer. He leaned over, and heard faint murmurings. After another ten seconds passed, he called out again, "You have ten more seconds to give me a reply."

Privately, 01 didn't really expect this to work. After all, what kind of an idiot would foil their entire plan to save the life of someone that was not essential to said plan? The idiot down there, part of him hoped.

He got down to a knee, straining to hear the words. This time, however, instead of hearing words, the faint patter of retreating footsteps greeted him.

"Shit," 01 stood up and turned to face his squad. "They're running. Support, you follow them. 03 and I are going to go get a radio, then follow you down."

The four men saluted, then hurried over to the ledge the held the ladder.

01 looked down at the green-haired girl in his arms, and held her out over the edge. The weak cries she gave cheered the man up immensely. He pulled her back up, placed his head on her shoulder, and whispered into her ear, "Oh, no. That'd be far too easy. Too quick. You still have a lot of use left in you."

He laughed as Shion tried to pull her head away, then nodded to 03.

"Let's go get that radio."

* * *

When he emerged from the underground rooms, he pulled the NVGs off, carelessly knocking his cap to the ground. "Grab that for me, would'ya?"

03 nodded and bent over to retrieve the cap.

As 01 pulled Shion around to the back of the van, he was greeted with the sight of the Captain and Skylarks 09 and 10, standing over the body of a man—one that 01 didn't recognize—in their own uniform. "Who's that?"

The Captain stood up, without looking at him. "No idea. I think the idiot thought that I don't recognize my own men."

He held a handgun out to the side. 01 didn't recognize it. As if the Captain had heard his thoughts, he said, "Deadman had a CZ 75. Czech-made. Certainly not a model we use."

Then the Captain turned around, doing a double take at the sight of the bloody and crying girl in 01's arms. "Is that one of the Sonozakis?"

01 nodded. "I took her prisoner and tried to use her as a bargaining chip. The others just abandoned her, but I figured we could squeeze some use out of her yet."

The Captain nodded. "Alright, load her into the van. We'll bring her to the Irie Clinic. Do you need any supplies to follow the others, as I assume the rest of your team is already doing?"

"Right. I need a radio; it'd be helpful to have access to the command center to get updates on Irie's tracker.

"Hm," The Captain opened the back of the van, and pulled out a backpack radio. "Here. I'll take the girl."

They traded, and 01 put on the backpack as he watched the Captain push Shion into the van.

01 saluted the Captain as soon as it was done. "I'll be back soon, Captain."

"See that you are." And with a single nod of the head, 01 was dismissed.

He turned to his comrade. "Time to go find those goddamn ankle-biters."

"Yessir."

* * *

Post Script:

This was a little something I thought of after finishing Higurashi and having a very sarcastic conversation with a friend of mine about the Yamainu (Special forces? More like /really/ special girl scouts). I figured I'd write it from the perspective of how I'd expect it to go.

Some of you may notice that Hanyuu is not present in this story, and I have a very good reason for that. Okay, maybe it should be called more of a 'lazy' reason, but it's still a reason: I couldn't really think of this scenario playing out the way I had it going in my head if she was there.

Anyway, I've rewatched a few episodes, but some external fact-checking is always appreciated. If you see anything wrong, just leave a review or send me a message.

PPS: No, this isn't the only chapter. I intend to write this to the Arc's conclusion.

PPPS: Don't hold your breath for the next chapter. I hope to write the full story before I continue posting. Between my APUSH essay, AP testing, guitar, and learning a new language, it may take a while. It'll probably be done before August gets here. No promises, though.


End file.
